On My Honor

The first time I think I ever heard the word honor was as a Girl Scout in the 1970’s. Back then, I understood it to mean the best part of me, the core goodness inside of us all. Over the rest of my life, I’m not sure I gave much thought to the word. I mean, I certainly tried to be an honorable person, and to show honor to those around me, but I never thought about how it affected me.

This month, I’ve joined up with a group of sisters in my church to go through Beth Moore’s Bible study of David. Can I just say that I love that guy? There’s nothing like a hot mess of a Bible character to make us all feel a little more understood, right?

David hit a low point in his life. Although he had been anointed by Samuel to become Israel’s next king, life was not easy for him in the time between the secret anointing and taking the throne. In fact, it was pretty much a train wreck.

And, there’s nothing like watching your life fall apart to make you realize that God is really the only One who can truly be there for us through everything.

Maybe you’re feeling that right now. Maybe this year has been one of struggles where you wonder why on earth God is letting you go through things so terrible when you fully believe that He is calling you to more.

Sister, it’s the best part of the struggle.

It’s in those moments where we feel like God has led us into a path that’s veered seriously off course, that we learn to look to Him alone. To trust in Him alone. To realize that our honor, our dignity, comes from Him alone.

Left to our own devices, we will often choose others in which to define our honor. We make gods out of people in our lives that not only can’t handle it, but were never meant to. We wait on the kudos from someone we admire, only to realize they can’t—or won’t—give them to us. The honor we’ve longed for in the eyes of our “gods” doesn’t come, and we’re devastated.

What a great place to be, right?

But honestly, it’s right where we should be.

With our gods pushed to the side, knowing they can’t help us or define us, we allow a wide open space on each side of us. Room for God to come in and join us instead. We realize that our honor and dignity comes from God alone, no matter who else holds us in high regard.

As David himself said in Psalm 62:5-8:

“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.”